Final Warning, Carcass, Laibach and Vitamin X

Yes, a strange mix, you could say. Balancing school and my show-going has been easier than I thought it would be, especially with the Night School position.
I find myself always trying to combine the things that I love--no matter how ridiculous it is. I heard about a teacher in Beaverton that has a "Heavy Metal" club at school. I would love to be able to do something like this, but it requires hours outside of the school day, which is not very do-able for the Night School kids. I would even do it for any of the day school kids, but I don't want to step on any toes and make too much work for myself. Maybe this is something I will hold onto until I get a full-time teaching gig in a high school. I have enough to do in the mean time.
I'm currently making myself some ghetto-stationery that I'm just printing out onto colored paper. I need to get Leslie or some other person I know to design me some good stuff.

In other news...I had to go to the Emergency Room last night because of this stupid ear-infection thing, but it's on the outside of my ear. I've been wearing these wood plugs I bought from some street vendor in San Francisco--writing that now makes me realize that I shouldn't have been so surprised that I am allergic to it (or that anyone would be allergic to it).

Last night the Women's Forum went to go see "The Women" at Century 16 Theater. It was a pretty drab whatever movie, but a good didactic film to dissect next week in class. We're going to talk about archetypes (yay!) and stereotypes and if Hollywood destroys them or reinforces them in the film. It'll be interesting. I'm compiling that handout right now. My secretary (yes, I have a secretary...okay, so I share her with like 4 other teachers and a principal, but seriously...I have a fucking secretary) and I went with the class. It was disgustingly cute and a great team-building activity. I really love my class.

I'm at school, trying to grade papers and write letters to my new students. I should probably continue with that.

Cunt, NaNoWriMo, Mandy Moore, etc.

So ends my 2nd full week of school. What a ride it's been.

Last night was my 2nd Women's Forum class. Rachel came and spoke to the class about the experiences that she had taking Women's Studies classes at PSU and being a feminist/girl in a band.

We read the introduction to Cunt. I always do that thing where I think that something is going to be all right to read/watch in class and then when it comes time and I'm reading it out loud or we're watching it...I realize, "What the fuck am I doing?? Do I want to get myself fired??"

Anyway, it was a really fun class. We had some healthy snacks (half of the girls tried hummus for the first time in their lives...which is totally insane to me) and had an egg toss to get to know one another (they had to pick a partner that they didn't already know) and talked about times when we've witnessed sexism in our lives.

A bunch of girls stayed after class to talk to me and ask a bunch of questions. Two girls are convinced that I am Mandy Moore's twin. At first, I was insulted and completely disagreed, but hey...it's better than the only other two I've gotten, which are Jennifer Tilly and Kat Von D.


My last update is NaNoWriMo...to do or not to do (for both myself and/or my students). I started making a flyer just to advertise it for this month and half-way through October. If it generates any interest at all, I'd probably be willing to give credit for any participants. Should I start my novel over again or should I try something new? So many decisions...so little time. Maybe I should try and coordinate with Amy Taramasso or Jerry Eaton. I have a lot of things to do this next week.

That's the update for now. Stay tuned.

The teaching journal with the lamest name, ever.

So, yeah. This is me starting my blog. All the other good names were already taken.

I decided to not continue with my livejournal account, because I was in high school when I started to write in it. Now, I am a high school teacher. I will, however, not delete it. It serves as a record of all the choices I made and feelings I had from about 2000-kind of currently. I meddled with it a but in Portland, but for the most part, it was my California life...my life with Cole...my life in retail/restaurants...my life in my undergrad...high school...frustrated.

This is my life now. This is my life without the aforementioned things. This is my life in a beautiful house with good people. This is my life with my own room--pretty much my first own room. It's filled with golds, reds and greens, ferret shit, antlers and skulls. This is my life as an English teacher. This is my life as someone who has not given up their beliefs or morals, but has learned to change and grow as a person, regardless.

Enjoy.